Tossing Campbell

CHERIE BLAIR yawns extravagantly while viewing the Braemar Gathering Highland Games with President Tony, the Queen and a kilted Duke of Edinburgh.

It was no stifled-behinda-hand yawn, but a full-open-mouthed job while staring in the direction of the monarch.

What can be done to make this annual gathering of dancers, pipers and cable tossers more interesting for Mrs Blair?

Perhaps the committee should engage her special adviser, Carole Caplin, to devise some novelty events.

Surely there's an amusing way of re-enacting The Tossing of Alastair Campbell From No 10.

LIKE The Full Monty (which I also haven't seen) Calendar Girls, starring Helen Mirren, is promoted as heart-warming British entertainment with a touch of naughtiness. Am I alone in deciding that I'll watch it only when it comes round on TV, if I'm doing nothing better on the night?

WHY does Foreign Secretary Jack Straw entertain the BBC's political editor, Andrew Marr, and his wife, Jackie Ashley, at his official country residence, Chevening? Perhaps it is to emphasise that while Mr Blair has fallen out with the BBC, the ambitious Mr Straw, who would like to succeed him, has no quarrel with the corporation.

Certainly no minister is more eager to broadcast on the BBC. Is it ethical for Mr and Mrs Marr - both of them impartial commentators, notionally - to accept hospitality on this level? That is for others to judge.